Beverly

Whew! The LBS has determined their was no serious damage done when some idiot hit the Madone It only required some new handlebar tape and some straightening of it's dislocated shifters.

I really dreaded taking it in since I knew they would be asking how this happened. When I told them some idiot driver hit it they inquired if I was injured. Sheepishly and in my lowest whisper voice I told them I wasn't injured since I was the idiot driver

Maybe I can blame this incident on my son. After all, it was his phone call that interrupted me while I was loading the bike. I leaned it against the back bumper and went inside to answer his call. Yep, I did it! Upon returning to the van I jumped in, put it in reverse and slowly started to back out my driveway. I slammed on the brakes when I heard a clattering noise and knew right away it was my bike I was afraid to get out and survey the damage. Thankfully it slid away from the van when I bumped it and I didn't run over it.

This is the very first time I've ever done something like this and it certainly will be the last. Noone or nothing will interrupt me while I'm in the process of loading the bike on the bike rack.

maddmaxx 

50+ thread for sure..................

speedlever

Sorry. Had to fix that for you. This is the 50+ forum afterall.

Glad your bike is ok. I know how frustrating it is to be so careful... and yet careless at the same time. Especially for someone as anal as I am.

swan652

Gotta love those senior moments...glad the bike's ok.

PirateJim

Not even much of a senior moment. Senior moment is when you lean the bike against the back of the car to get the rack out of the trunk, can't open the trunk because you've forgotten your keys, notice you've forgotten your bike shorts because you have all these pockets to search, get your bike shorts on and return to car only to recall you don't have your keys, search house for keys finally discovering them in the butter tray in the fridge and THEN back out over your bike as you pull out of the garage.

Glad the Madone is okiedokie.

rodrigaj

I actually have a check list for all things I have to remember to do and bring before each bike ride.

And I ride every day.

also, if you have a roof rack:
...put the garage door opener in the glove compartment before you head out.

....what you did to your bike can also happen to the front wheel...never leave it leaning against the car.

Lessons learned the hard way.

swan652

I stand corrected.

rck

Beverly, Don't feel too badly. I once slammed my car door twice on a fairly expensive flyrod. (never lean a rod up against the car!) I still can't figure out the 2nd time, maybe I wasn't satisfied with just a 2 piece rod. Glad to hear that the bike is okay.

Tom Bombadil

Your heart must have skipped a beat or two after you heard the noise and recognized what it was.

You were very lucky this time.

Little Darwin

I've never backed over a bike, but a couple of weeks ago, I backed my SUV into the garage to load more stuff into it for a dump run.

I backed in with the tailgate up... I don't mind the paint scrapes so much, and I am convincing myself that I wanted a different garage door anyway.

Glad the bike is OK.

cranky old dude

No one seems at all concerned about any damage to your van.
Glad the bike's O.K. , now make sure not to run over it while you're still on it.

SaiKaiTai

Ohhhhh... yikes
I can only imagine... your heart must have been up in your throat.
Glad it's all OK.

Re: the garage door opener: Not feeling that the glove box is removed enough, I throw mine into the back seat where I have to actually contort myself to fetch it.

Louis

If I take the front wheel off, I lean it against the drivers door...so far, so good.

Glad it all turned out okay, Beverly.

RoMad

I drove into our garage once with a kids trailer on the roof rack of our brand new van. Bent the trailer a little and broke the front crossbar off of the vans roof rack. And I couldn't even blame it on a senior moment as it was about 15 years ago. The good thing is I still think about it when I have something on the roof rack. I'm sure you will never forget your little incident.

DnvrFox

Put your garage door opener in the wedge.

You must take the bike off to open the garage door. Problem solved, except for the McDonald's drive thru.

George

It don't get any better as we get older either.

Beverly

Do people really have room in their garage for a car with all the bikes and bike trailer

Even if I had room for the van the garage opener is programmed into the console on the headliner in the van. Hiding the remote wouldn't help me in this situation

The really sad part of this incident is the van has a backup warning system that beeps when you put it in reverse and there is something behind it. Unfortunately when the bike is on the rack the warning system beeps and I've become accustomed to ignoring it. You can bet I'll pay more attention to it in the future...when it beeps I'll check to see if the bike is on the rack

freeranger

Glad the bike is OK. And it's not just the older crowd that does such things! Years ago, we were watching a group of 25-30 somethings, headed for the Tour du Port in Baltimore, try to pull into a parking garage-with their bikes on top of the car. Guess they couldn't hear us screaming at them to stop, or didn't think we were yelling at them, but it wasn't a pretty site--the entrance wasn't near as tall enough for the bikes to clear.

Beverly

Well, the van is a 2002 model with 130,000+ miles on it. The bike is a 2007 model with 4000+ miles. At this point the bike is probably worth as much or maybe even more than the van

Dchiefransom

The answer is to stop jumping when the phone "snaps it's fingers". Let it ring while you secure your bike.

Yen

Every cyclist's almost-worst nightmare. Glad the injury wasn't too bad and can be fixed.

TruF 

Thanks for sharing your story and your sense of humor, Bev! So glad that the bike is OK. I believe that sometimes life gives us little warnings to get us to pay attention. This incident may have prevented you from having a more serious accident in the future.

Red Rider

What they all said.

I can only imagine the panic when you realized what you did...so glad it wasn't worse!

Lesson learned, eh?

solveg

Look on the bright side.... it was your lightning fast catlike reaction that kept from marring the Madone! You still got it going!

geofitz13

Glad your bike is okay.
They say the first thing to go is....er....what was I saying??


I may be old and fat and slow, but I make up for it by being
Old....and fat....and slow....